Recently, while electronic apparatuses including a personal computer and a portable telephone have been equipped with various and better functions, a lighting apparatus used in such electronic apparatuses have been, therefore, demanded diversities of lighting and operation.
Such a conventional lighting apparatus is described with reference to FIG. 6.
FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the conventional lighting apparatus. This lighting apparatus has the following structure. In FIG. 6, stationary housing 1 has a box shape and is made of insulating resin. A plurality of push buttons 2 is arranged about a top surface of stationary housing 1. Inside this housing 1, switching contacts 3 are disposed below respective buttons 2 to each establish electrical connection and disconnection at the press of button 2. Operating part 4 is formed of these buttons 2 and contacts 3.
Wiring board 5 is disposed below switching contacts 3 and has a plurality of wiring patterns (not shown) on its top and bottom surfaces. A plurality of light-emitting diodes (hereinafter referred to as “LEDs”) 6 is mounted on the top surface of this board 5.
Movable housing 7 has a box shape and is made of insulating resin. This housing 7 is mounted to an end of stationary housing 1 so as to open and close on its lower end, and is provided with display part 8 such as a liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as “LCD”) at its surface facing operating part 4. Inside movable housing 7, fluorescent lamp 9 is disposed behind display part 8.
An arithmetic means, a storage means, a communication means and others that are formed of a microcomputer, a variety of electronic parts and others are positioned inside stationary housing 1 and movable housing 7 of the lighting apparatus having such a structure. In this way, the electronic device such as the personal computer or the portable telephone is formed.
In the above structure, when specified push button 2 is pressed downward, switching contact 3 positioned below this button 2 is pressed by this button 2 and establishes the electrical connection and disconnection, and a letter, a numeric value, a mark or the like that corresponds to this operation is displayed on display part 8. Display part 8 is illuminated corner to corner from behind by fluorescent lamp 9, so that a display on display part 8 becomes easy to see, and the letter, the numeric value, the mark or the like can be visually identified without fail.
The conventional lighting apparatus is thus configured to facilitate the visual identification of the displayed letter or the like even in dark environment. Also, this conventional lighting apparatus facilitates the visual identification of the position of each button 2 even in dark environment because the plurality of LEDs 6 on the top surface of wiring board 5 emits light, with which the plurality of buttons 2 is illuminated simultaneously from below.
The conventional lighting apparatus described above, however, has the following problems. Expensive fluorescent lamp 9 is used to illuminate display part 8. Since push buttons 2 are illuminated by LEDs 6 disposed below respective buttons 2, in cases where many buttons 2 are arranged, the number of LEDs 6 should be equal to the number of push buttons, thereby causing the increased number of components to be used and it takes time to mount the components onto wiring board 5. Consequently, the conventional lighting apparatus becomes costly.